Terrible FIOS performance, Time to switch?
peeringproblem

  I have been an incredibly happy FIOS customer since 2005.  I have sung the praises of fast, reliable internet service to all those who asked. 

 Over the last several months however Internet performance has been terrible (high latecy, packet loss) to many key content sites and my workplace.  It appears the common issue is a peering dispute with cogent and perhaps other content delievery sites. 

 As far as I can tell, "eyeball" networks, such as cable companies and Verizon want content providers to pay to deliver content to captive eyeballs, e.g home users.  Content providers argue that the reason home users want internet access at all is access to content they provide. 

While I can appreciate Verizon's argument, as described here:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/02/06/AR2006020601624.html

 I would like the message to make it to someone in Verizon that the way this looks to the FIOS customer is my FIOS internet service is unusable for connections to large portions of the Internet. Also it sends a very strong message that Verizon is perfectly willing to deliver terrible performance for months on end to order to play "peering chicken" with other providers to increase revenue.  I was unable to deliver this message via support channels. 

 Verizon tech support, while very polite, has no idea about this issue and will happliy waste your time and verizon's money swapping out routers and tweeking wifi settings. 

 My other main choice in comcast, which apparently battling level3 over the same issues:

http://www.internap.com/2010/12/02/peering-disputes-comcast-level-3-and-you/

I hope someone at the FCC is watching this debacle...

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Re: Terrible FIOS performance, Time to switch?
gs0b
Community Leader
Community Leader

Welcome to the forums. These are primarily a peer-to-peer place.

Occasionally a moderator will kick an issue to Verizon support, however those are typically things like billing issues or long unresolved technical issues.  The support team that handles these issues is basically the same team you get when you call or chat with Verizon.

As far as I can tell, nobody at Verizon will ever look at a strategic issue such as peering as a result of customer posts to these forums.

About the only thing we mere customers can do is vote with our wallets.  But like you pointed out, we may not have any real options.

In short, you're singing to the choir when you post about peering here. 

Good Luck.

Re: Terrible FIOS performance, Time to switch?
anonFios
Contributor - Level 2
Definitely switch if you can! Verizon Fios just isn't that great like it used to be.
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Re: Terrible FIOS performance, Time to switch?
db909
Contributor - Level 3

@anonFios wrote:
Definitely switch if you can! Verizon Fios just isn't that great like it used to be.

I don't disagree but  there has been such an explosion in data intensive  streaming that statement applies to all the big ISPs

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Re: Terrible FIOS performance, Time to switch?
sangs1
Specialist - Level 2

@db909 wrote:

@anonFios wrote:
Definitely switch if you can! Verizon Fios just isn't that great like it used to be.

I don't disagree but  there has been such an explosion in data intensive  streaming that statement applies to all the big ISPs


That's the thing. A lot of my neighbors have Comcast and they're infuriated by its internet performance. Several are planning to switch to FiOS when their Comcast contracts are up. So the grass isn't always greener, as they say. I'd check with friends/family/neighbors in the area that are using other providers before jumping into a switch with both feet.

Re: Terrible FIOS performance, Time to switch?
SoNi67
Contributor - Level 1

Comcast and Verizon both are throtling down netflix, amazon prime, and other "competitors".

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